Director Akio Jissoji #14

As the tokusatsu show “Silver Kamen” (1971-1972: 26 episodes) started airing on TBS around the same period as “Mirrorman” (1971-1972: 51 episodes) produced by the Tsuburaya Productions and broadcast on Fuji Television, the “Silver Kamen” was a challenge from those who set up their own companies after their resignation from the Tsuburaya Productions towards the tokusatsu original.

Actually the “Silver Kamen” aired in the same time slot that was called the “Takeda Hour” back then as the original Ultra Series and Kaiki Daisakusen broadcast in the form of the Tsuburaya Productions having lost the glorious time slot.

The “Silver Kamen,” however, failed to gain so much popularity while it started as a tokusatsu show featuring a human-sized hero, and the show ended up starting featuring the giant version of Silver Kamen in Episode 11 and the subsequent episodes with its title also changed into “Silver Kamen Giant” from Episode 12.

Although the series finally managed to win popularity to some degree, the series ended with the 26 episodes as it is obvious that the “Mirroman” won the viewership competition. At the point when the show changed into “Silver Kamen Giant” most of the staff from the Kodai Group are said to have got out of the series including Akio Jissoji although Noriyoshi Ikeya seems to have kept being involved in it in charge of the art work.

While it is apparently an act Jissoji took showing his disapproval towards the series that started featuring the giant version of the hero as it made the show look more similar to the ones featuring the giant heroes by the Tsuburaya Productions against his will, given the “Silver Kamen” was planned to be produced under the combination of Jissoji and his long-time partner Mamoru Sasaki, script writer, who worked with Jissoji in “Ultraman” as well, it is a real bummer that Jissoji left the show in disappointment.

Incidentally, the Kodai Group has been widely involved in making TV commercials perhaps since it was set up, and it is said that it financially supported Jissoji’s activities in producing movies with the ATG as the ATG movies designed to be artistic rather than commercial were not always profitable enough while it seems to be one of the reasons Ikeya was also admired as an excellent business manager to manage the company well.